


not quite but still good enough

by Anonymous



Category: Transformers: Prime
Genre: Amicable Ideological Differences, Decepticon Politics, Functionalism (Transformers), Gen, Lost Causes, Strangers to Friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:21:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28458945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Breakdown realises how terribly the Vehicons are treated and tries and fails to change things.  Despite his failure, the Vehicons are sufficiently touched.  Knock Out is not, but he knows better than to dissuade his assistant when he's got his mind set on something.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 17
Collections: PB Anon Meme - 2020





	not quite but still good enough

It started with the energon rations.

When Breakdown first came aboard the _Nemesis_ , he'd been amazed with how much of the stuff was freely available. As he told Knock Out, the way Megatron scrimped, you'd think they were running on fumes.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. There was an absolute _surfeit_ of the stuff on board, enough to power the ship and glut every bot on it for vorn and then some.

It wasn't enough for their great and glorious leader of course. All the energon in the galaxy wouldn't be enough to hand him Prime's helm on a platter.

But, in any case, when Breakdown was pressed, he would say it started with the energon rations.

-

Being a ranked lieutenant — albeit a low-ranking one — on board the ship awarded him certain privileges. Like unfettered access to the energon vaults.

Which translated to him being able to fetch enough energon for the two of them when Knockout was burning the midnight oil. Or to take a little extra when he knew he'd be sent a little further away.

He knew the Vehicons weren't given the same dues, but he had no idea how bad it was until a pair of them — T0N1 and FR3D — staggered in after a mining accident.

"Oh scrap," T0N1 grunted.

"What's it say?" FR3D asked.

"Balance insufficient."

"Try my card," FR3D said, extracting a miniature dataslate from his subspace.

"Same message, scrap."

Breakdown reset his vocaliser. "What's the matter, soldiers?" he asked.

"Br-Breakdown! Sir!" T0N1 stammered.

"Nothing, sir," FR3D insisted. "Nothing's the matter."

The pair stood at attention, as they were obligated to do in the presence of a higher-ranked officer. Breakdown walked over and cocked his optic at the card.

"What's that?" he asked.

"Oh, this? It's, uh..." FR3D answered, stammering still. He looked to his fellow Vehicon for assistance. T0N1 shrugged.

"It's a card," T0N1 supplied.

"Tch, I can see that much," Breakdown grumbled. "What's it for?"

As it turned out, the CNA scanner attached to the energon dispenser had difficulty distinguishing between the Vehicons. Therefore, they'd each been given an identity card of sorts with which they could withdraw a set amount of energon per...

"Per _chord_?" Breakdown repeated, unable to believe his audials. "That's what you're supposed to function off of per chord?"

"Sir, please understand," T0N1 rallied, "Our frames are much smaller than yours and a lot more efficient — "

"Not to mention most of us don't even make it to the end of the chord to begin with," FR3D added. Like that was supposed to be a good thing.

"To the pit with efficiency ratings," Breakdown snarled, putting two and two together. "Is that why G30F fell out of the sky last raid?"

The Vehicons before him exchanged uncomfortable glances.

"This is ridiculous," Breakdown grumbled. And it was, it really was. This kind of segregation was why the whole war had been fought. To see the same unfairness had taken root aboard their leader's flagship was chilling. "Here," he stuck out his own servos, pressing it to the CNA scanner, before asking for two cubes of energon. Then he remembered the two Vehicons were back from a _mining accident_ and pressed the button two more times.

"Listen," he said, giving the cubes to the Vehicons, "This is fragged up. Why didn't you say anything?"

"Breakdown, sir, you can't — " FR3D protested.

"We're only drones!" T0N1 added.

"Yeah, and I'm just a disposable mining bot!" Breakdown snorted. "Is that enough for today, at least?" he asked, gesturing to the gifted energon rations.

He left to the sound of the Vehicons tripping over themselves in gratitude, sick to his spark.

-

If his processor had been free of self-righteous fury, it would have told him to _at least_ run his idea by Knock Out first. A little more clarity probably would have told him it was a lost cause to begin with; that they were so far removed from Cybertron and from the ideals which started the war that any complaints he lobbied would fall on deaf audials, but Breakdown wasn't thinking clearly then.

"Patrol duty for a _quartex_ ," Knock Out scowled, after Megatron had sent him — along with his complaints — packing.

Breakdown grit his denta.

"And your access to the energon rations has been cut off?!" The medic made a strangling gesture with his claws.

Still, Breakdown said nothing. There wasn't much to say, really.

"Breakdown," Knock Out sighed, looking at him in the same fashion as when his assistant's sometimes clumsy servos had overturned a medical berth. Or a reactor. "Why did you do this? What, in the name of Primus, were you _thinking_?"

"It's not fair though," Breakdown protested, "The Vehicons are the ones working the hardest. They're the ones dying in droves. The least Megatron could do is let them get sufficient fueling!"

"They're drones, Breakdown," Knock Out ground out. His optics flashed dangerously at the surge in his assistant's fields.

Breakdown said nothing.

Knock Out gave a long ex-vent. He dragged his servos across his face plating, ignoring the ugly scraping noise it made.

"Alright," the doctor sighed, "Here's what we'll do. You need to lay low on Earth for an orn or two. Then I'll lodge a complaint, that I can't get as much work in the lab done without my fearless and extremely dim-witted assistant on-board. I'm sure I can convince old spider legs to bridge you back then, our glorious leader's moods don't last long these days, thank the Allspark."

Mind made up, Knock Out took ten cubes of energon from his own subspace, passing them over to Breakdown.

"Keep your lines open, you hear?" he instructed before lightly punching Breakdown's shoulder.

His partner's kindness should have warmed his spark. He normally welcomed any evidence that Knock Out cared. But he thought of G30F tumbling out of the sky... of ST3V3 limping through the corridors... of R1K4S, F0X3N, and G3N0S beating a hasty yet futile retreat...

How many of those sparks didn't need to be snuffed out? How many losses did the Vehicons take in battle courtesy of their underfueled state?

It wasn't Knock Out's fault though. Breakdown understood that much. So he took the proffered cubes of energon and even managed to give thanks — because it wasn't like the medic needed to stick his neck out for him, not when he was generally more than enough to run the labs and medbay by himself.

-

Breakdown figured his time on patrol would be uneventful to the point of boring. It wasn't like the Autobots were in any state to launch coordinated attacks, after all.

As he was settling in for the planet's night cycle however, there came the unmistakable green flash of a groundbridge. Breakdown squinted, powering down his headlights to better see.

"...T0N1?" he asked, unable to believe his optics.

"Breakdown, sir," the Vehicon saluted, "I heard from ST3VE what you did for us on the bridge. And we..." he took out four cubes of energon from his subspace, "I mean... I know it's not very much, but I just..." he made the same strangling motion as Knock Out had, back on-board the _Nemesis_.

"We're grateful sir, we really are," T0N1 amended. "And I'm sorry we can't do more."

"That should be my line," Breakdown sighed. "It's not right, none of it is. And you don't need to give me your rations, look — " he switched into root mode before baring his own subspace, "Knock Out's made sure I'm well-stocked."

T0N1 hesitated.

"Sir," he said again, "We'll remember this. I swear on my spark."

"Same goes for me," Breakdown grunted. "Now get back to the ship before our leader sends you down here too."

T0N1 made that strangling motion again before he reluctantly scooped up the rejected energon cubes. "At least have this," he said, leaving a datapad on the ground. And then a groundbridge bloomed in the same exact spot he had come from and he quickly hurried back.

The datapad turned out to be a repository of epic tales from the Golden Age. Breakdown had only heard of them recited in bits and pieces by the older miners. It had been megavorns ago, yet the few stories he'd been read were still fresh on his processor. He ended up passing several night cycles reading through the pad, familiarising himself with stories old and new.

-

Three nights passed before another groundbridge opened. It revealed another Vehicon.

"D0NN1," Breakdown greeted, shifting back to his root form. "Like I told T0N1, I really don't need any more rations. See — " he revealed the seven cubes that were stacked neatly in subspace.

"I didn't come for that, sir," D0NN1 stammered. "It's just, well, J4K0B said you were nearly done with the datapad and I figured you might be bored, especially since there's not much for you to do out here..." like a supplicant at a temple, D0NN1 carefully approached him, setting down a second datapad.

"Oh," Breakdown said, at a loss for glyphs. "Uh, thanks, I guess." He reset his vocaliser. "I mean it."

"It's an honour, sir," D0NN1 replied. He was gone with a salute.

After a long klik, Breakdown went over to look at the second datapad. This one detailed an action series from Velocitron complete with static illustrations.

-

He was about a third done with the second datapad when Knock Out commed him right as another groundbridge blossomed before him.

"Ready to come back, I hope?" the medic asked.

"I don't know," Breakdown admitted, "The Vehicons have been giving me lots of reading material. I bet even you'd like some of this stuff!"

"Breakdown, you come back this instant or I'll drag you back myself."

"Coming, coming."

-

He made a beeline for the medbay after being let back onboard the ship. Neither of them would admit it, because what was an orn or two in the span of their acquaintanceship?, but Breakdown liked to think Knock Out missed him. In any case, he let Knock Out fuss over him a bit in the medbay, buffing and then polishing his already pretty decent finish. It wasn't as if he'd met Bulkhead or any of the other Autobots after all.

"There," Knock Out said at the end of it, swiping his glossa against the edges of his derma. "Good as new," he purred.

"Thanks," Breakdown grunted. "Should I...?" he asked, gesturing to the lapping oils.

"No, no," Knock Out tutted. And then, as an aside: "Later, perhaps." Then he turned to his patiently-waiting patient and started fussing over that one as well.

-

Breakdown slipped out and went to the lower decks which made up the Vehicon habsuites. T0N1 and D0NN1 were waiting for him, along with what felt like an entire retinue.

It was weird, talking about his day cycles on the planet. The Vehicons asked for all kinds of details that Knock Out never cared for. Weird, but nice at the same time. A different kind of conversation. And then when Breakdown turned the tables and asked them what they had gotten up to, it was clear the assembled Vehicons were similarly baffled.

"We, uh, guarded the energon vault," ST3V3 said.

"There was a run-in with Prime's team too," D0NN1 added.

"No casualties though," J4K0B reassured.

Like with him, it took a while for the Vehicons to understand he didn't _want_ anything from them. Well, anything besides some conversation.

-

"Breakdown," Knock Out sighed when he returned at last to the medbay, "They're drones."

Breakdown shrugged. He'd already resolved to remember their names and likes and dislikes. ST3V3 liked flying over open water. T0N1 had amassed a huge repository of Cybertronian literature. D0NN1 snuck out to participate in Earthling races... kinda like Knock Out, in fact. And J4K0B had a thing for the little blue Autobot, the two wheeler. Arcee.

Likely seeing a lost cause on sight, Knock Out cut himself off with a sigh.

"Well then," the doctor sighed, "If you've already made up your mind..." he gestured to the assortment of buffs and polishes at the corner. "Can you at least do my back plating before our glorious leader exiles you anew? It's an absolute pain in the aft to reach..."

Breakdown obliged, as was his way. He didn't need Knock Out to understand the value of fraternising with the Vehicons, just as Knock Out didn't need him to understand the value of drag racing.

In their imperfect world, tolerance — and the exasperated affectionate acceptance that came with it — would have to do.


End file.
